A Properly Happy ending
by Ivy2
Summary: alternate ending fic..can't believe I'm the one to do it yay enjoy and please r/r me PLEASE


A Properly Happy Ending....  
  
  
  
disclaimer type thing--ok..so we know that these characters don't belong to me (more's the pity..wouldn't I love to own a Rhet...) but I'm a big fan of the book..and the movie..except I always wanted a happy ending. Can't believe there aren't more of these what if happy ending type deals on here. Hehehe more the reason for me to write one.  
  
feedback--please...please...PLEASE email is on my thingy..or im ids..hey a review or two now and then would be nice *big dramatic sigh* and if you like this one..I have a buffy fic and a highlander the series fic up to..read and enjoy :D and if ya don't like it BITE ME  
  
time line--picks up right at the end (based on the movie..haven't read the book in so long..) just after scarlet and Ashley find out melly's died....and in my time line there is no need for a sequel..:D  
  
  
  
"Meeellllyyyy" the first sound Rhet hears as he is led into the parlor, and he see's Ashley, and his wife, of course, she's always with Ashley..even when she's with him in their home, it's Ashley she's thinking of.  
  
Scarlet's face is composed, but he looks into her eyes, those feline orbs, and he knows her pain. Despite how she'd often treated Melly badly, lusted after her husband for their entire marriage, Scarlet had come to love the soft spoken Melanie Wilkes, and seeing her dying now was devastating to Scarlet, almost as bad as the loss of her mother must have been just at the end of the war.  
  
Scarlet starts to reach out, to hug Ashley in pity, knowing he'd loved Melly so much, that this los was devastating to the gentle man she'd love with all her childish fiery passion. As she checks the movement instead, India steps forward, dour faced as ever, and embraces the weeping Ashley. Scarlet steps back quietly, not yet aware of her husbands presence in the parlor.  
  
But, Rhet is foremost in her thoughts now, despite her sorrow over the loss of the big hearted Melly. Something accurst to her as Melly's words to her ring in her ears...  
  
"Be kind to Captain Butler, Scarlet, he loves you so..."  
  
Was Melanie just trying to make Scarlet feel better, or could it be true? Rhet had waited for her, longer than he had any other women, and at times he'd seemed to really care. But since Bonnie..since she'd lost their second child after her fall..he'd been so cold, less playful than he had before  
  
Suddenly it was as if someone had dumped cold water on her, the realization dawning that she didn't love Ashley anymore, not as anything more than a brother, and old friend..someone who'd shared those precious pre-war days with her, when Tara was a proper plantation. She realized that she loved Rhet, despite their problems, and how he always seemed to be making fun of her. She was crazy in love with him. Scarlet felt suddenly awkward amidst the mourners around her, though she still felt sad for the loss of such a genuinely kind person as Melanie Wilkes had been, she also felt light, freer than she had since she was a girl of sixteen, flirting with her beaux on the wide front porch of Tara.  
  
Without realizing the object of her thoughts is standing slightly hidden by a pillar, dark eyes on her, she turns and without telling anyone where she's going or why, she dashes from the room, headed home in the fog of the early morning, headed for home, and for Rhet, she just HAS to tell him.  
  
Rhet jumps with surprise as she dashes away, his eyes following her before he steps up. He murmurs his condolences to the bereaved and weeping Ashley, knowing nothing he can say to the man will affect the relationship. The two have never liked each other, Ashley thinking Rhet wasn't good enough for his darling Scarlet, and Rhet being so jealous of Ashley, and Scarlet's obsession with him that at times he longed to call the other man out. Only his respect for Ashley's wife had prevented that.  
  
No one, not the Meade's, or the Wilkes, or even any of the servants seemed to notice as he left, in pursuit of his errant wife, wondering what she could be doing now.  
  
Scarlet burst into their big peachtree street house, her voice raised as she calls out.  
  
"Rhet...Rhet!! Please..where are you..I have to tell you something..something important Rhet.."her voice fades, a fear settling into her stomach as she gets no reply at first She stops at the foot of the stairs, looking up them and then around the foyer, a fist pressed to her chest.  
  
He reaches the doorway, standing in the open door and watching her frantic searching for a moment. he can't help but wonder what she's about now. Could she have decided that niceties aside she wants rid of him now. After all her beloved Ashley is free..mabey he should just step back and let it happen, leave her and return to his mother's in Charleston.  
  
But then again...he can't fathom her mind sometimes, and the look in her eyes a few moments ago. She'd looked at Ashley as the might look at anyone from her past, like someone she cared about, but not someone she'd once claimed to love so passionately, the passion of only the very young.  
  
He coughs softly, leaning against the door frame and looking at her with those dark eyes.  
  
"what on earth could be so important that you'd leave a grieving Ashley and come to me/" he asked, half playing, half coldness. He wasn't giving anything away this time, he never had.  
  
"How did...melly's dead Rhet..but that's not what I had to tell you..though..her last words were of you...you and young Beau..and Ashley"  
  
His lips curl into that dark sneering smile she knows so well, and she sighs inwardly, he'd never make this easy for her.  
  
"Oh really? and what did Melly have to say of such importance?" he asked, knowing she'd insisted on seeing Scarlet at the end, rather than Aunt pity, Beau, or even Ashley, but not knowing what had passed between the two women.  
  
"well..she..she made me promise to take care of Beau..make sure he gets a grand tour and goes to university, like he would have if there had never been a war...and Ashley..she asked me to take care of him too" she says, pausing.  
  
Before she can finish rhet snorts softly, stepping inside and thumping the door closed behind him. h moves into the dining room and to the fully stocked bar, preparing to pour himself a shot of whiskey. As he does he speaks over his shoulder.  
  
"Ahh..so then, convienient that, to have the wives permission..then Melly always was nicer to you than you deserved" his words are cutting but he'd meant them to be.  
  
"No..no Rhet" she can't believe her ability to continue with her confession as mean as he is acting. But she'd determined to do it, and anyone who knows Scarlet at all, knows she always does what she sets her mind to do.  
  
"I didn't tell you what else she said..about you..Rhet..she said 'take care of captain Butler, he loves you so..'' she finished, staring at his back from the entrance of the room. His hand pauses a moment.  
  
"She would..Melanie Wilkes was a good woman, she always thought of everyone else first" he doesn't confirm or deny the last, his love for Scarlet. Of course he loved her, though he knows she's more like a poison in his blood than a wife.  
  
'I know..and I was horrid to her, Rhet..to her..and to you.." she lets the sentence hang a moment, not certain how to proceed. For the first time she's about to reveal her newly understood feelings, and she's not good at that, as evidenced by the last time she'd one such, all those years ago in a library at Twelve oaks.  
  
"oh ho..and what brings on this sudden remorse, Scarlet, don't tell me losing Melly has made you rethink all your life..if you plan on atoning for all your mistakes you are going to be tired of it well before anyone cares to forgive or forget"  
  
Scarlet frowns, he's obviously not going to make this easier for her, then again when had he ever? She gives a resolute sigh, eyes flashing with anger at him for ruining her confessional moment, though he has no idea that's what it is.  
  
"Oh just forget it all, Rhet Butler..I should have known better than this..to think I ran all the way here, planning on telling you how I'd realized today that I do love Ashley Wilkes' she gets interrupted as he curses softly and downs the shot he'd poured, slamming the glass onto the polished wooden top of the sideboard. but this time she continues, despite his protest.  
  
"as a brother..AND that the man I really love is the one I'm married too"she finishes, and then turns and starts out of the room, hiding the tears in her eyes from that confession. In seconds Rhet had crossed the room, grabbing her arm roughly and turning her around to meet her fiery green gaze with his darker eyes.  
  
"What are you after now, Scarlet?" he growls, knowing this sudden confession must be some sort of trick  
  
"Nothing Rhet..and I should have known better...Melly was just trying to make me feel better..there's no way you could love me, you're far to selfish for loving" she snaps, but the tear that she'd only just blinked away and the look in her eyes belied her words.  
  
"Pot calling the kettle black, Pet...you've never loved anything but Money..money and Ashley Wilkes..both things you can now have, I'll give you a divorce, and you can have a good sentiment...we can pretend this whole mess never happened" He dangles this in front of her like taunting a dog with a bone.  
  
"No..no I don't want your money anymore, Rhet..and I don't want Ashley Wilkes..I..I know what Pa said was right...likes go with likes..Ashley and Melly were alike..and me and you...No one's ever understood me like you do Rhet.."she doesn't try to pull away, instead leaning closer, wanting so desperately for him to kiss her, to tell her its ok and they can begin again.  
  
"and if I said we'd give it all away, be paupers...?" he asks, his voice low.  
  
"I'd say give it to Beau..than I'd be keeping the promise to melly..."  
  
"Say it again, Scarlet" he demands, wanting to look into her eyes as she says the words he's waited half her life to hear her utter, that she loves him..not his gold, not his big house but him..Rhet Butler..gambler, wanderer..belated hero.  
  
"say what?' she asks softly back, eyes wide.  
  
"You know..Say it" he puts emphasis on the words, and it isn't lost on them how like his marriage proposal this moment is, his hands holding her, her head tilted back, eyes wide as she meets his.  
  
"I love you Rhet...not Ashley..not your money..not status or any of it..I love you" her words are soft, her heart leaping as she says them, a fear of rejection she'd never known in her lifetime burning strongly. the words have a simple dignity, and Mammy (couldn't leave her out now could I?) hiding in the next room and listening to her favored of Ellen's girls profess love to a man she'd been married to for years, smiled, hoping Mast' Rhet wouldn't deny her Scarlet the love she wanted back.  
  
"took you long enough" he murmurs softly before crushing her to him tightly, his hand pulling pins from her dark hair as it holds the back of her head, his mouth pressing against hers in the most passionate and loving of kisses.  
  
Soon Mammy snuck away, black face wreathed with a big smile. they'd have a lot of work those two, but they'd make it, they had love and determination between them, enough for any army to be conquered.  
  
It wasn't long before Rhet was again carrying Scarlet up that wide red carpeted staircase, taking her to her large bedroom and laying her down to make gentle passionate love to her.  
  
  
  
in the end---Scarlet and Rhet lived a happy life after that, and later had more children together. A boy, named Michael Gerald, and two girls, Melanie Ellen, and Katie Careen. Scarlet's son Wade, and daughter Ella were brought to live with them, and after some time all wounds were mended and they all lived happily. Sullen and Scarlet mended their relationship as well, and Scarlet did keep her promise to Melanie. Beau went to university, and was later married. Ashley still missed his beloved Melly, but eventually he to remarried, and had more children of his own. 


End file.
